Unemployment drops across the board

Local unemployment numbers for November came out Friday, along with national, state and county numbers. All four indicators dropped in November.

The city’s jobless rate in November for Santa Clarita dropped to 6 percent, from 6.3 percent in October.

The city’s rate is down from 7.2 percent in November 2011, said Jason Crawford, manager of economic development and marketing.

“The number of unemployed in Santa Clarita continues to trend down,” Crawford said. “With more businesses scheduled to open and expand in 2013, we will be seeing even more job opportunities to come.”

Of all four unemployment rates, Los Angeles County saw the biggest change in unemployment figures for November dropping to 9.8 percent from 10.5 percent in October. A year ago the rate was 11.3 percent, according the state’s Employment Development Dept.

California’s unemployment rate also dropped to 9.8 percent last month, down from 10.1 percent in October. The biggest gains were in trade, transportation and utilities, followed by construction, information, financial activities, and leisure and hospitality.

And nationally, the November jobless rate dropped to 7.7 percent from October’s rate of 7.9 percent. The national rate drop was 1 percentage point lower than a year ago.

In all, the jobless rate dropped in 45 states in November, according to data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics Friday.

The ongoing drop in the jobless rate matched the consumer confidence rate which hit a five-year high in November. On Friday, however, the consumer sentiment index dropped to 72.9 in December, down from 82.7 in November, according to a report by the Associated Press.

Consumer confidence dropped because of uncertainty over the fiscal cliff, said Peter Newland, an economist at Barclays.

Despite the drop in the jobless rate nationally, there was a November increase of mass layoffs - where 50 or more workers are laid off. But the rise in mass layoff numbers was due primarily to the effects of Hurricane Sandy Oct. 29, on workers in New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania, the labor bureau reported.

There were 1,759 mass layoff actions in November involving 173,558 workers – an increase of 399 layoff actions from October.